Windows 8.1 Refuses to Restart to get into the BIOS

[carolriv]

I have made several attempts to get into the BIOS in order to change the boot order from a small hard drive to a larger one. I can get as far as going into the Advanced Settings to request a restart so I can select the boot order but when pressing restart, the screens go black and nothing further happens.

I have a Gigabyte Ultra Durable GA-970A-DS3P Motherboard. The computer is a custom gaming machine put together by CyberPower.

The largest hard drive available was 1TB and I have installed two - 2TB. I would like it to run off one of those and take the 1TB out.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

[popatim]

Have you tried entering the bios immediately after powering the pc on from/after a shutdown?

 

[carolriv]

Have you tried entering the bios immediately after powering the pc on from/after a shutdown?

 

[carolriv]

When the PC is booting up, it does not show the usual options that Windows 7 and earlier versions did (such as press ESC for boot preference, etc.). There is literally a blank screen until the Windows welcome screen comes on.

I am wondering if I need to purchase some sort of upgrade for my current Windows 8.1 to enable me to access the BIOS...

 

[popatim]

Theres an option to suppress that message from being displayed in the bios. (It comes from the bios not the OS)
Press Del a few times in between turning it on and the windows logo.

 

[carolriv]

Theres an option to suppress that message from being displayed in the bios. (It comes from the bios not the OS)
Press Del a few times in between turning it on and the windows logo.

 

[carolriv]

I just tried the "Press Del a few times in between turning it on and the windows logo" and the screens remained blank. Windows would not boot up, either. I had to shut it off and turn it back on.

 

[carolriv]

Theres an option to suppress that message from being displayed in the bios. (It comes from the bios not the OS)
Press Del a few times in between turning it on and the windows logo.

 

[carolriv]

If the problem comes from the BIOS, would I be able to buy a new chip and install it on the motherboard to fix the problem?

I think it has: GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™ technology

 

[carolriv]

Just for your edification: I called Cyberpower and asked them for advice. He suggested that it could be an issue with the video card. I had just bought a card recently but didn't pay attention to the machine when at booted up so did not notice that it no longer showed options to get into the bios. The technician asked me to reinstall the original video card to see how the machine behaved with that one in it.

With the monitors connected to the original vid card, the boot options menu reappeared and I was able to get into the bios.

 

[popatim]

I was just going to suggest removing the gpu and use the onboard. The issue I beleive is the bios isnt intializing the gpu until later in the boot process and thats why you're not getting your options. Be sure the bios is set to initialize the PEG or PCIE card first.